The Location ID Separation Protocol (LISP) is a technology for network virtualization used to deploy Internet-based virtual private networks (VPNs). LISP provides on-demand tunneling for traffic exchanges across VPN sites and data centers. Generally, a LISP-supported network architecture uses two namespaces instead of an IP address. One namespace includes endpoint identifiers (ElDs), assigned to endpoint devices for identifying network sessions between the devices. The other namespace includes routing locators (RLOCs), assigned to network devices (e.g., routers, switches, etc.) for routing traffic through the network. EIDs may be mapped to one or more RLOCs. Further, a LISP mapping system maintains a database to handle endpoint reachability information, allowing traffic to be tunneled to an appropriate data center based on information obtained from the mapping system. Using two distinct namespaces allows a LISP-supported device to maintain an IPv4 (or IPv6) address even if the device migrates to another network location. Such a naming scheme provides relatively high scalability and more efficient multi-homing capability. In addition, this approach provides virtualized workload mobility across interconnected network fabrics.
One concern in providing LISP mobility support to network fabrics is initially configuring a given fabric. A LISP mobility network generally includes a LISP egress tunnel router (ETR), an ingress tunnel router (ITR), a proxy ETR (PETR), a proxy ITR (PITR), map resolver (MR), and map server (MS) device. Current approaches allow auto-configuration of devices in a network fabric upon attachment of a network host to a first hop device in the fabric. However, to configure a LISP network, an administrator generally has to manually register “day one” command-line interfaces (CLIs) on each network device. Because data centers can include many network devices and subnets in different physical locations, the amount of CLIs required to configure can be numerous.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially utilized on other embodiments without specific recitation.